Recent PDA Updates

Kings Norton · Post by **Kings Norton** » 09 Sep 2018, 20:27

Has anyone noticed how bad the PDA updates are now? they are so bad the keyboard has gone blue a black box keeps appearing with volume icons on, that annoying navigation still pops up, you can no longer get into the setting for auto rotate or brightness or bigger or smaller text, in fact my opinion its gone even slower or is just me? thoughts on this please!

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 09 Sep 2018, 20:45

Kings Norton wrote:Has anyone noticed how bad the PDA updates are now? they are so bad the keyboard has gone blue a black box keeps appearing with volume icons on, that annoying navigation still pops up, you can no longer get into the setting for auto rotate or brightness or bigger or smaller text, in fact my opinion its gone even slower or is just me? thoughts on this please!

Some issues might be down to the update of the Android software that the RM apps run on

Celgar · Post by **Celgar** » 09 Sep 2018, 21:20

Kings Norton wrote:Has anyone noticed how bad the PDA updates are now? they are so bad the keyboard has gone blue a black box keeps appearing with volume icons on, that annoying navigation still pops up, you can no longer get into the setting for auto rotate or brightness or bigger or smaller text, in fact my opinion its gone even slower or is just me? thoughts on this please!

I didn't know there were options for auto rotate, brightness, or text size. Having said that the default screen options seem fine to me. The 'biue' update, as I shall name it here, seems to have reduced the occurance of timing out and the screen going black unless it's just me. You can now select upper & lower case letters although for the most part I don't see that much use for this option. The most popular annoyance is still joint number one 'incident report' & 'adhoc collections/delivery' coming up on screen. These two options should be much harder to select. I would remove the navigation option as well for obvious reasons.
If I could turn back time I would go back to the paper collection sheets. Unfortunately the march of technology prevents us doing so.

NewPostieUK · Post by **NewPostieUK** » 09 Sep 2018, 21:30

I had three different PDA's last week, all were crap. Takes 2 or 3 goes to scan a 2d barcode, they kept freezing, going to random screens and at one point there was no light (no beam that scans).

Celgar · Post by **Celgar** » 09 Sep 2018, 22:10

Ah yes it has been noticed that zapping a barcode will not necessarily bring the item up on screen. Our DOM has told us to not rely on the beeping sound and always check all the items are listed on the PDA screen. I don't know if this problem has been reported to the RM department responsible for PDA software.

Post by **fb1969** » 10 Sep 2018, 07:57

On two days last week I had the scanning application crash on the PDA. The first time I did a soft reboot using the button, but the second time the PDA had totally locked up so I had to pull the battery.

I'm a float so it was different PDAs and I know others have had the same problem.

Celgar · Post by **Celgar** » 10 Sep 2018, 08:29

fb1969 wrote:On two days last week I had the scanning application crash on the PDA. The first time I did a soft reboot using the button, but the second time the PDA had totally locked up so I had to pull the battery.

I'm a float so it was different PDAs and I know others have had the same problem.

I had the software crash one day last week as well which doesn't usually happen that often. I had to do the usual setup process again from zapping the barcode on my ID badge onwards. Luckily it had kept the delivery and collection numbers otherwise I would have had to return to the DO.

Sir Henry · Post by **Sir Henry** » 10 Sep 2018, 21:26

Do you have a wee blue pouch for collections? If PDA goes tits up we have been told that you can just use the collection barcode on the pouch for both delivery and collection. I also write both barcodes down and keep them in the van along with all the entry codes for apartment blocks and sheltered accommodation.

Seymour Buts · Post by **Seymour Buts** » 10 Sep 2018, 22:06

Just put 10 zeros in the pda as a delivery route if yours goes tits up. Works everytime.

Jpro747 · Post by **Jpro747** » 11 Sep 2018, 15:17

Here’s an idea, why don’t they make a way for us to report PDA issues to the IT department? It seems they don’t know what issues we have as there’s no communication between us. They still haven’t addressed some of the key issues since the beginning... scanning an item but it doesn’t appear on screen, crashing after obtaining a signature, collections should be separate from delivery screen so we don’t keep clicking on the boxes. Blue text really isn’t helping much!!!

Post by **fb1969** » 11 Sep 2018, 15:45

Jpro747 wrote:Here’s an idea, why don’t they make a way for us to report PDA issues to the IT department?

That would make far too much sense, so will never happen. RM don't like people who do the job to have any input into how the job is done, therefore the person using the PDA is the last person they would ever want feedback from.

Having said that - I am with you in what you are saying

clashcityrocker · Post by **clashcityrocker** » 11 Sep 2018, 16:09

Would it make sense to have over 100 000 people being able to report back on whether they like the blue screen or not?
Probably not.

scoobymunster · Post by **scoobymunster** » 11 Sep 2018, 17:31

You should be ashamed Jpro747, thinking a Communications company should let frontline staff talk with other departments, that's crazy talk!

Celgar · Post by **Celgar** » 12 Sep 2018, 12:55

Sir Henry wrote:Do you have a wee blue pouch for collections? If PDA goes tits up we have been told that you can just use the collection barcode on the pouch for both delivery and collection. I also write both barcodes down and keep them in the van along with all the entry codes for apartment blocks and sheltered accommodation.

Electric gate codes is something I already have covered. I think I have the delivery barcode in the van glove box. The collections barcode is a more recent change so I don't have that in the van. Might be a good idea to have both codes on something laminated in the Vans officially or attached to collection keys for the deliveries. If I remember I will raise this one with our DOM.